With the translation deadline in about 2 weeks, It would be inconvenient to change any further strings. Otherwise it will get to a point some languages are not 100% translated in time and end up with English strings. It's also UI freeze.
@Wimpy informs me it'll be fine to make further corrections, so please do if you have time. Ideally, all final string changes should be set in one go ASAP to avoid incomplete translations.
@wolfman, please let us know your feedback to this thread.
That sounds easy enough. I originally thought of scroll bars or ellipsis. 
Ubuntu (and its flavours) are in UI freeze. Changing the animation now wouldn't be permitted. I consider your question an opinion, but I'll keep it noted.
That's an old version of Welcome, it did work by typing ubuntu-mate-welcome from the terminal. This screen is different now.
It's a known problem with the Black-MATE theme, just like Caja displays really dark text. @Wimpy's on it, the issue should be fixed in a week or so.